Bec MacConn
| first appearance = | last appearance = }} Bec (meaning "Little One") MacConn is a fictional character in Darren Shan's The Demonata series and title narrator of Bec (which takes place over a thousand years before Demon Thief). She was a member of the MacGrigor clan (though she is raised by the McConn clan) and is distantly related to Grubbs Grady. She was training to be priestess and was taught by Banba and had an extraordinary memory. Bec also narrates Death's Shadow, the seventh book in the series. She is also said to be the "mother" of Death as she survived her supposed death in Bec and by doing so, caused Death to develop a conscience. Ancestry Bec was born into the MacGrigor clan, who live as outcasts on a remote plain. When the Demonata and Fomorii invaded Ireland several centuries prior to the events of Bec, the MacGrigor allied themselves with the demons, several even going so far as to mate with them. Most (if not all) of the resultant children appeared to be human and without deformities, and so went on to live normal lives. However, as they later discovered, their demonic ancestry had afflicted them with a terrible curse: Just when they had almost reached adulthood, some of the children transformed into werewolves (see also lycanthropy). This continued down the centuries, with at least one child transforming in every generation. The MacGrigor asked druids and priestesses to free them of the curse, but to no avail (though, as is later revealed, Lord Loss possesses the ability to remove the affliction). When Bec learns of her heritage, she fears that she may fall victim to the curse as well. The Demonata Bec Bec was found at the gate of the MacConn clan's ráth, after her mother died in childbirth while on the run. The priestess of the ráth, a woman named Banba, tested Bec and discovered that she had magical potential. At Banba's insistence, Bec was accepted as a member of the clan, and spent much of her early life learning the ways of magic. When Bec was in her teens, a tunnel was opened which granted the Demonata access to the human world, and Ireland was overrun by hoards of monstrous demons. The people of the rath had to defend themselves from these creatures, but many died in the battles, including Banba, thus leaving Bec without a teacher or a guardian. Several months after the attacks began, a mysterious, scatterbrained and super-humanly fast boy named Bran arrived at the gates of the rath. He implied that he required help, and Bec was compelled by a vision to join the group of warriors who volunteered to assist the boy. This ultimately leads her to encounter the Druid Drust, and offers Bec and the warriors the opportunity to help him close the tunnel that was admitting the demons. It was later revealed that closing the tunnel requires the sacrifice of a magician, and that Drust had intended to use Bec for that purpose. Bec accepts this as the price of saving her people, and continues despite the fact that she will die whether or not the quest succeeds. Drust tries to teach Bec how to harness the power of stars for spells, as druids do, but she is unable to achieve results with this magic. One night, the demon master known as Lord Loss, attacks in the night, and during the encounter uses magic to dramatically increase Bec's power (though this is only discovered much later in the novel). Shortly after, the group encountered the MacGrigor clan, to whom Bec's mother, Aednat, belonged. The MacGrigor revealed Bec's origins and the truth about her birth, both of which were deeply disturbing to Bec. By the time they arrived at the tunnel, all the group members were killed apart from Bec, Drust and (as is later revealed) Bran. Drust is mortally wounded by Bran (who was trying to save Bec's life) and, too weak to perform the ritual, offers himself for the sacrifice instead. With Drust dead and the Demonata in the process of being pulled back to their own Universe, Bec and Bran try to flee before the cave's entrance seals itself. They come close to escape, until Vein, who came back from the Demonata's realm through a window constructed by Lord Loss, grabs hold of Bec's leg. Bran charms Vein into releasing Bec, but by that time the hole to escape is so small they would not be able to make it. Bec uses what is left of her magic to forcibly propel Bran through the hole. Just before it closes he shouts "Bec!", the first time he says anyone's name. She can not reply as the hole closes, leaving her sealed inside the cave. There she is killed by Lord Loss' familiars, after he explains why he helped the group by increasing Bec's power: Lord Loss feeds off misery, not death; were the world destroyed then his food source would similarly vanish. He also tells her her death was for nothing, as he had been crossing between the demon world and the human world for centuries before the tunnel was created. He claims that he liked Bec, and would have enjoyed feeding off the misery which she was destined to experience. However, when Drust had humiliated him earlier in the book, he placed a geis (the demon curse of death) upon the entire group, and therefore has no choice but to kill her. In the last sentences of the book she is seen being literally ripped apart by the demons dying a painful and gruesome death. Blood Beast Bec reappears in Blood Beast. When Grubbs is dealing with the family curse, he goes to the tunnel where Bec died. Her soul has somehow become trapped in the cave, keeping her on Earth. Grubbs sees her face and hears her whisper a warning, but she is speaking Celtic so Grubbs doesn't understand. Later when Juni helps Grubbs escape, he returns there. The whispers are more warning. Grubbs yells at her "I don't understand you" and using his magic shakes the cave violently. She then disappears. Demon Apocalypse In the latter part of Demon Apocalypse, Beranabus realises that Bec was warning Grubbs about Lord Loss's plan to reopen the tunnel which they closed centuries before. However, by the time he arrives with Grubbs and Kernel, it is too late, and the demons have already emerged. Bec's trapped soul reaches out from the rock to Grubbs and Kernel, and the boys combine their powers with hers to travel back in time (along with Beranabus) to the night the tunnel was reopened. This feat prompts Beranabus' realisation that Bec is the third piece of the Kah-Gash. They prevent the tunnel's opening, but are forced to kill Bill-E Spleen to do so. Seeing that Lord Loss intends to kill them all, Bec enters, possesses and reanimates the body of the deceased Bill-E, and fights off the demon master. She transforms the body to recreate her original appearance, and finds herself faced with a second chance at life, albeit in a time many centuries after that in which she was born. Death's Shadow Death's Shadow '' reveals that Bec has moved in with Dervish Grady, and is posing as his niece under the alias of "Rebecca Kinga". Her assumption of Bill-E's body has caused her to absorb some of his memories, as well as certain of his behavioural and linguistic habits (eg. his handwriting style, the use of terms such as "coolio" etc.). This softens the blow of her transition to the 21st century, though she still finds some aspects of modernity intimidating. However, the memories also present a problem: Dervish constantly pesters her to share her insight into Bill-E's mind, leaving Bec to feel that she herself is nothing more than a means for Dervish to avoid his grief. In addition to this, since her reanimation, any physical contact with others causes her to absorb some of their memories, and she is too worried about this power to confide in anyone. She forms a friendship with Meera, who convinces her to confront Dervish about his behaviour. The two sort out the issue, but moments later, the house is attacked by werewolves, and in the ensuing battle, Dervish has a heart attack. After several developments, including a battle with the resurrected Juni and the healing of Dervish's heart, Bec joins the Disciples as they pursue Juni to a cruise liner. There Lord Loss, speaking through the mouth of a restrained demon named Cadaver, states that Bec's being a piece of the Kah-Gash is a mistake, an unintended side-effect of his enhancing her powers. After this, Juni sacrifices Cadaver to summon the Shadow creature seen leading the Demonata in ''Demon Apocalypse. The Shadow attacks Bec in an attempt to absorb her piece of the Kah-Gash, and the contact allows Bec to gain vital information about the creature: it is in fact not a demon, but the personification of Death, as she tells Beranabus. Beranabus sacrifices himself to send the Shadow back to the Demonata Universe, and Bec, Killri and Dervish escape on a life-boat. This book concludes as Bec tells her other companions of the Shadow's true significance. Wolf Island Grubbs discovers in Wolf Island that Bec and Dervish have survived the zombie incident and he makes a deal with Antoine Horwitzer (the man who informed him of this fact) to spare him if he ensures their safety. However, when he does so, Grubbs has him killed anyway. Grubbs meets them later on, safe and sound. Sadly, Grubbs finds out that his uncle Dervish is slowly dying from his heart problems. Dark Calling In Dark Calling, Bec and Grubbs disagree about looking for Bernabus' soul. As they disagree, Kernal thinks about Beranabus and some patches of light appear. He assembles them and they enter a shadow world. There, they speak to Bernabus' soul, after which Bec has a private conversation with him. However, when they free Bernabus' soul along with others trapped in the Shadow world, the world vanishes and they find themselves in a world where there are millions of demons, including Lord Loss and Juni Swan. Meera Flame is fatally wounded and willingly explodes herself, killing Juni Swan with her. Bec is last seen by Grubbs and Kernel, fighting with Lord Loss by Grubbs and Kernel, and she tells them to leave her behind. However, as he departs, Kernel notices that Bec and Lord Loss are not fighting so viciously and suspects her of betrayal. Hell's Heroes In the final installment in the series, Hell's Heroes, Bec's betrayal is comfirmed. However, by the end of the book, it is revealed that her actions were part of a ruse to destroy the Demonata. At the end of the book, Bec, Grubbs and Kernel join as the Kah-Gash and recreate the universe, altering reality to remove the Demon masters from existence(as they may fracture the Kah-Gash like before) with the exception of Lord Loss, whom she agrees to spare. As the memory of the Kah-Gash, Bec guides the other two parts and is charge of creating the new life. Physical description Bec is described as a petite,small girl with dark red hair.Her skin is paler than others in the crowd and has green eyes(according to Lord Loss in Hell's Heroes).Though she isn't very pretty,she somehow attracts Bran, and maybe Kernel (Dark Calling) while also having feelings towards Bran as well. Bec's necessary age is unknown,but since she says in Bec that her blood (also known as a period) comes earlier than average girls,she might be somewhere between 11-15, and a bit older than Grubbs and Kernel due to her calmer thoughts. But counting her 1600 years of imprisonment, she would probably be about 1614 years old, give or take a few years. We can infer that Bec is around 15 because the rate at which a young adolescent woman menstruation is at the age of 15 (Although this is an estimation of her age it is not confirmed nor a profound fact.) Personality Bec was a brave and selfless girl though she was also humble about her own courage, thinking she was more practical than courageous. However she was willing to give her life if she had to, as proven when she planned to allow Drust to sacrifice her to close a tunnel between the human and demon universes. Her bravery and strong will caused Beranabus to fall in love with her the moment he saw her, even though it was said that she was not an especially attractive girl. Bec was very devoted to protecting the world from the Demonata. She also managed to endure sixteen hundred lonely years of captivity in the wall of a cave without going mad which shows that she possessed incredible strength of character. However when she was finally freed she continued to feel lonely and said that she was as scared of the modern day as she was of demons. Bec made many close relationships during both of her lives. She thought the warrior who found her, Goll, was like a father to her and had romantic feelings for a blacksmith named Fiachna, whom she kissed shortly before his death. Sixteen hundred years later, she also became close friends with Meera Flame. Bec initially had a shaky relationship with Dervish who saw her as little more than a mouthpeice for his dead nephew Billy. However they became friends once Bec told Dervish that she wanted to be treated like a real person instead of an object. Because she was a peice of the Kah Gash, she also had a close bond with the other two pieces, Grubbs and Kernel. However her strongest bond was with Beranabus who cared about her more than he'd ever cared about anyone. Bec helped Beranabus turn from a scatterbrained child into one of the most powerful magicians in history. She continued to love Beranabus even when she saw him in his demon form and was devastated by his death. When she was reunited with his spirit within Death, she didn't have much time to say goodbye to him, but Bernabus figured out a way to defeat the Shadow, which he told to her and no-one else. Unfortunately this led Grubbs and Kernel to suspect that she was betraying them. Powers and abilities Bec's magical powers appear to vary greatly depending on the circumstances and environment. At times she is phenomenally powerful and at other times her magical abilities are only mediocre. Interestingly this continues even after Lord Loss powers her up, albeit in the modern world, where there is much less magic. Although Lord Loss once states that Bec is more powerful than Beranabus or Grubbs Grady, this seems to be untrue, possibly reflecting Lord Loss' conviction in his own superiority as he was the one who gave Bec most of her power. She seems unable to use magic to the same degree as Beranabus or Grubbs whilst on Earth but gains enough power to hold her own against Lord Loss in the Demon Universe. Possibly this was because much of her power came from Lord Loss and therefore could be considered a Demon's magic, which was significantly weaker on Earth. As a child Bec trained with the priestess Banba, but when Banba was struck and killed by a demon, Bec's training ended and her skills grew rusty. After Bran appears, Bec meets Drust, who teaches her druid spells and helps her to reconnect with her magic. However, her powers become truly phenomenal when Lord Loss uses his own powers to both spark her innate magical skill and then enhance it to the point that she essentially by-passes all the normal turning points of the mystic arts in one bound. Bec is also remarkable for her ability to not only cheat Death, but essentially give birth to it. By surviving her apparent death in Bec, she caused Death itself to develop a consciousness and personality. Presumably she survived dying because Lord Loss had accidentally transferred his peice of the Kah-Gash into her. One talent which remains constant throughout both her training with Banba and her supercharged state following her encounter with Lord Loss is her memory: it is so perfect she can even remember her own birth. This talent also comes in useful in allowing her to remember all the spells she is ever taught. In Death's Shadow, Bec gains the ability to soak up the memories of those that she touches; the longer the contact is sustained, the more memories she gets. She speculates that this new gift is a side-effect of her imprisonment in the cave, and, as of yet, she has not demonstrated the ability to regulate the absorption of memory. Because she dislikes the inherent intrusiveness of seeing into the minds of others, she avoids physical contact with others whenever possible. It is revealed in Dark Calling that Bec has such a powerful memory because she is the memory part of the Kah-Gash, with Grubbs and Kernel being the trigger and the eyes, respectively. However it is interesting to note that Bec's memory had always been remarkable, even before Lord Loss transferred his peice of the Kah-Gash into her. Bec is a piece of the Kah-Gash. It is revealed in Death's Shadow that this piece was originally Lord Loss', but that he transeferred it to Bec (unknowingly) when he increased her power. In Dark Calling, an Old Creature tells Kernel that the piece of the Kah-Gash in Bec could be used to turn her against the Disciples, as it used to belong to Lord Loss and may have been tainted by him. Although this might have been true to some extent, Bec was able to overcome any dark traits that Lord Loss had passed onto her, either by magic or sheer willpower, and helped Grubbs, Kernel and Lord Loss save the human universe and at least one of the demon universes; the one that Lord Loss lived in. It has been implied that Lord Loss' universe wasn't the only demon universe that Bec, Kernel and Grubbs decided to spare because there may have still been other Demon Masters still alive, although most, if not all of them, were weaker than Lord Loss, who had originally been one of the weaker Demon Masters. Appearances * Bec * Blood Beast * Demon Apocalypse * Death's Shadow * Wolf Island * Dark Calling * Hell's Heroes Category:Humans Category:Bec (book) characters Category:Blood Beast characters Category:Demon Apocalypse characters Category:Death's Shadow characters Category:Wolf Island (book) characters Category:Dark Calling characters Category:Hell's Heroes characters Category:Kah-Gash Category:The Demonata Characters